Phoenix Compensation Agreement - FAQs

A PIPSC member who was employed continuously for the full period covered by the compensation agreement (2016-17 to 2019-20) is entitled to the following compensation:

• 5 days of leave added to your leave bank (or the equivalent value paid cash if claimed as a former employee)
• A top-up amount of $1,000 to be paid in 2021
• An additional top-up amount if your annual salary was less than $78,264 (or 300$/day)

A member who receives the full value of their 5 days of leave (calculated at $300/day) and their $1,000 top-up would have received the equivalent of $2,500 in Phoenix compensation.

In addition to this compensation, a member who experienced other losses related to Phoenix may be eligible to submit a claim for further compensation under the Out of Pocket expenses claims process, the financial costs and loss of investment income claims process, the leave taken as a result of Phoenix claims process, and/or the severe personal or financial hardship claims process.

The total value of the compensation is the same for all unions ($2,500). How members receive their compensation is different depending on their union. PIPSC members will receive a combination of extra leave plus a taxable payment. PSAC members will only receive a taxable payment.

In addition to this compensation, PIPSC members may submit additional claims if they have suffered losses as a result of a Phoenix pay problem.

Departments will be crediting leave on different timetables between now and November 12, 2019. You will receive an email from your department identifying the date that the leave will be credited. An email will follow to confirm that the leave has been credited to your bank. It will explain the process to address any issues that may arise. The day of leave for 2019-20 will be credited after the end of the current fiscal year (after March 31, 2020).

These days of leave are treated the same as annual vacation leave and are subject to the same provisions in your collective agreement.

In order to qualify for each fiscal year’s worth of leave, an employee needed only to have been employed for one day in that fiscal year(s), whether or not they were on leave, assignment or otherwise not active. For example, if you were hired to the federal public service on September 1, 2017, and have been employed since then, you will get three days of leave credited to your leave bank (2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 fiscal years). You are eligible for these leave bank credits if you were a PIPSC member or a member of another signing union during the fiscal years described above. At the Government of Canada, a fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31 of the following year.

No. To qualify for each year’s leave, you only need to have been employed one day in that fiscal year. You will receive the compensatory leave for each of the four years in which you were employed for one day.

You may be eligible to submit a claim under one of the compensation processes made available by the employer:

• Reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses
• Compensation for financial costs and lost investment income
• Compensation for severe personal and financial hardship

You should review the eligibility criteria to determine whether you can submit a claim.

Beyond the base compensation of up to 5 days of leave for general pain and suffering, employees who suffered exceptional and severe personal and financial damages may file a claim for further compensation. The employer will engage in a detailed review of claims submitted, with supporting documentation, that meet a threshold of losses greater than $1,500 (this threshold does not apply to every type of claim). 

There is no minimum threshold for out-of-pocket expense reimbursement.

Yes, they will.

Yes, they will.

All of the following claims processes are accepting claims from members:

• out-of pocket expenses
• general compensation damages for former employees
• financial costs and loss of investment income
• leave taken because of health issues related to Phoenix
• severe personal or financial hardship

Yes, if you experienced damages that fall under more than one type, you can complete more than one compensation request. You will not receive any duplicate compensation, but it may enable you to meet the required $1,500 threshold that is applied to many claim types. For example, if you declared bankruptcy due in whole or in part to the Phoenix Pay System, you can submit a claim for related damages to the bankruptcy. You could also submit a claim for mental anguish if you experienced this and it interfered with your ability to lead a normal life.

If you have already met this $1,500 threshold with a claim for financial costs or losses, you do not not need to meet the threshold a second time when submitting a claim under the claims for severe personal and financial damages.

While we cannot guarantee that a claim will be successful, we advise you to read the claim category descriptions carefully to ensure that you are submitting a claim under the correct process. You can then complete the appropriate annex (form) with all relevant documentation.

You should avoid submitting a claim under the catch-all category entitled “Other personal or financial hardship” if a more specific category applies to your situation. You may need to file a claim under more than one category if more than one applies to your situation.

In addition, we strongly suggest you provide a detailed chronology of your Phoenix pay issue and its impact, with all relevant supporting documentation. This will allow the reviewing claims officer to have a full understanding of your claim.

PIPSC cannot submit a claim on your behalf. However, if you have reviewed all the information in this FAQ, as well as the details related to the relevant claim category on the Treasury Board website and you still have questions before submitting your claim, please contact us at phoenix-help@pipsc.ca.

If your claim is denied, we first advise you to provide any missing documentation or information that could help the claims officer to better review the claim. If the decision can’t be reviewed by the claims officer or is further denied, contact us at phoenix-help@pipsc.ca without delay. We have 40 calendar days to refer the matter to arbitration, if our analysis of the claim supports this step. Contact us immediately and provide us with:

• a copy of the claim with all supporting documentation submitted
• a copy of the response with any supporting documentation provided by TBS
• why you want to pursue the denial of the claim, with a detailed rationale so that we can better assist you.

In June 2019, PIPSC and 14 other unions signed a joint agreement with the Treasury Board to provide up to 5 extra days of annual leave, to compensate more than 146,000 current and former employees who may have been impacted by the Phoenix pay system.

This agreement included a “top-up clause” that required the Treasury Board to match any higher amounts for Phoenix compensation negotiated by another union.

In July 2020, another union signed a Phoenix agreement that had a higher monetary value than our own. After many weeks of negotiations, we successfully applied our “top-up clause” that brings the value of your Phoenix compensation in line with the value of any superior Phoenix agreements concluded by other unions.

There are two parts to the top-up payment:

A. Up to $1000

For each fiscal year that you were working as a PIPSC member, you will be eligible for a top-up payment, for a total of up to $1000. The amounts of the top-up payments are as follows: $400 for 2016-17, and $200 for each of 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20. This is compensation for the late implementation of the collective agreement that was supposed to come into effect in 2014.

In order to qualify for each fiscal year’s worth of top up, you needed only to have been employed for one day in that fiscal year, whether or not you were on leave, assignment or otherwise not active.

For example, if you were hired to the federal public service on September 1, 2017, and have been employed since then, you would have received three days of leave credited to your leave bank (2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 fiscal years) thanks to the original Phoenix compensation agreement. The top-up makes you now eligible to receive an additional amount of $600 ($200 for each fiscal year in which you were employed).

Members who have been working for the public service since fiscal year 2016-17 would receive the full $1000.

At the Government of Canada, a fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31 of the following year.

B. Members whose annual salary is less than $78,264

This payment is associated with the 5 days of leave that were already received as general compensation for Phoenix. The amount of the top-up payment is equal to the difference between $300 and your daily rate of pay, which may be different for each of the fiscal years.

Current and former members whose annual salary is under $78,264 ($300/day) will be eligible for this top-up payment for each fiscal year for which you were a PIPSC member or a member of another signing union (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20).

You can get as many top-up payments as you received days of leave for Phoenix. For example, if you were hired in September 2018 and had received 2 days of compensatory leave (for fiscal years 2018-19 and 2019-20), and your salary was below $78,264 for both those fiscal years, you would be entitled to this top-up payment for both fiscal years.

This payment will only apply if the difference between your daily rate of pay and 300$/day is more than $10.

Top-up payments are taxable and are non-pensionable.

PIPSC members paid by Phoenix in one of the following groups are eligible for the top-up:

• CP, formerly AV (CO and PG classifications)
• CS
• NR (AR and EN classifications)
• RE (DS, HR, MA and SE classifications)
• SH (DE, MD, ND, NU, OP, PH, PS, SW and VM classifications)
• SP (AC, AG, BI, CH, FO, MT, PC, SG-PAT and SG-SRE classifications)
• NRC (LS, IS, RO-RCO, TR)
• AFS (CRA)
• OSFI
• NUREG (CNSC)
• CFIA (IN, S&A, VM)
• CER, formerly NEB
• NFB

Members can only be compensated once for each fiscal year, whether as a current or former employee of the core public administration or of a separate agency.

Employees can only be compensated once for each fiscal year. You can’t make a claim under the agreement signed by PIPSC and another agreement signed by another union for the same fiscal year. For example, if you were a PSAC member for the fiscal year 2016-17 and then became a PIPSC member from 2017-18 onwards, you may be entitled to compensation under the PSAC agreement for fiscal year 2016-17 but you aren’t entitled to compensation under the PIPSC agreement for that same year. You would be covered by the PIPSC agreement from the time you became a member (2017-18) onwards.

If you are a current employee of the public service, you don’t need to submit a claim or take any further action. The payment will be made automatically by the employer to employees who meet the eligibility criteria on September 1, 2021.

If you are a former employee of the public service, you will need to submit a claim via the Treasury Board’s webpage. We do not expect the claim process for the top-up for former employees to be made available until December 2021.

The payments will be made by the employer on September 1, 2021. The timeline is to ensure that payments are done with as little error as possible.

If you retire before the automatic payment date of September 1, 2021, you will need to submit a claim when the claim process opens for former employees in December 2021.

No, you will still receive any outstanding amounts owed to you that you have not received due to Phoenix.

You will receive any outstanding amounts owed to you that you may not have received due to Phoenix on a case-by-case basis. Individual grievances continue to be worked on. Details on your case can be answered by contacting the Phoenix Help Team.

The new claims process will address all damages and/or interest resulting from pay issues and so there is no need to proceed with existing grievances at this time. If your pay issues have been fully resolved and the only outstanding issue remains damages and/or interest, the process to follow is to file a claim under the new process that will be established in keeping with this agreement.

We anticipate that the process will be similar to the current process to claim out-of-pocket expenses. When the claims process is established, we anticipate that our members who want to file a claim will submit all of their details and documents to the employer, not your union, through that process. These claims will be made directly to the employer and not through PIPSC.

On that basis, we recommend that you hold on to any relevant information you have in relation to any damages and interest claims you may wish to file. We will post the details of the new process on our website as soon as it is available.

For more information on this please read the full agreement.

The agreement covers damages for the following four fiscal years: 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.

No. Up to five days of additional leave will be automatically provided to employees. Former employees and estates of deceased employees will receive a cash payout in lieu of this leave by submitting a claim for this compensation. Individual employees who missed opportunities to earn interest on savings accounts or other financial and capital investments, experienced delays in receiving severance or pension payments, or experienced severe personal or financial hardship due to Phoenix pay issues will also be able to claim additional compensation by submitting a claim.

No. In fact, the agreement creates a faster, dedicated process for resolving individual claims. This agreement does not close off the possibility of negotiating further compensation at the bargaining table or further negotiations outside of collective bargaining should they be warranted.

Yes. Broadly speaking, this agreement contains three tiers of damages. The first-tier, which provides additional days of leave, applies to every public servant who worked at least one day in a position represented by one of the signatory unions since 2016. The second-tier extends the Phoenix-related expenses eligible for reimbursement for those who were directly affected and the third-tier deals with additional damages for those who faced hardship.

The process to file a claim and to obtain details related to the required supporting documentation can be found on the Treasury Board’s web site.

Former and retired members can now submit an online claim for any part of the Phoenix compensation agreement. You can claim cash compensation for:

• Up to 5 days of paid leave
• Up to $1000 in top-up clause money
• Out-of-pocket expenses or financial losses incurred due to Phoenix
• Severe impacts due to Phoenix

Yes, you are entitled to the cash equivalent of the leave days. The compensation claims process for former members is now available. If you worked in a department using the Phoenix pay system between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2020, regardless of whether you experienced a pay problem, you are entitled to compensation.

If you were still employed on June 12, 2019 then you were compensated as a current employee and should have already received additional leave in your bank. These days of leave are treated the same as annual vacation leave and are subject to the same provisions in your collective agreement. If you did not receive the additional leave in your bank, contact your former department’s Human Resource team.

If you left the public service between April 1, 2016 and June 11, 2019 then you should apply through the process for former members. 

If you were still employed on June 12, 2019 then you were compensated as a current employee and should have already received additional leave in your bank. These days of leave are treated the same as annual vacation leave and are subject to the same provisions in your collective agreement. If you did not receive the additional leave in your bank, contact your former department’s Human Resource team.

If you left the public service between April 1, 2016 and June 11, 2019 then you should apply through the process for former members. 

Former employees will submit a claim on the government’s website to receive a cash payout equivalent to the value of this leave. This claims process is now available.

Representatives of former members and representatives of the estate of a deceased employee will make a claim manually using a printable pdf form available now on the government website. 

You will receive your Phoenix compensation by cheque. When you submit your claim, you will be given the opportunity to provide your current mailing address.

Yes, this compensation is taxable for the year the payment is issued. For example, if the cheque is dated December 23, 2019 but you receive it on January 2, 2020, it will still count as income for 2019.

If you were not a member of PIPSC, or any other signing union included in the agreement, for at least one day during a fiscal year since 2016-17, you may not be eligible to receive the leave days in question for that year.

The Treasury Board has decided to extend the terms of that agreement to excluded employees. If you were an excluded employee, you may be entitled to the days of leave for those years you were employed.

Yes, you are subject to the same agreement as full PIPSC members.

You are eligible for compensation if you were a PIPSC member during the pay periods described above.

No, you are not covered by this agreement.

The National Joint Committee bargaining agents agreed to engage in these discussions with the employer nearly two years ago in an attempt to resolve a number of policy grievances and complaints filed by bargaining agents. PIPSC appointed a representative to sit on a subcommittee with the employer to negotiate this settlement. The settlement is a result of negotiations at that table and the Bargaining Agent heads have come to agree with the settlement.

There were several reasons. Firstly, the process of negotiating an agreement involved multiple parties with a variety of interests. Second, the scope of the problem increased over the duration of these talks. Finally, these negotiations were intertwined with collective bargaining, which lengthened the process of Phoenix negotiations.

This agreement covers all public servants paid by Phoenix. The extra days off are in recognition of the frustration and uncertainty that the system caused you, whether or not your pay was affected. If you are still owed payments or suffered additional losses, you will be fairly compensated in the grievance process. This time off is in addition to any payments owed to you.

The five days of leave were reached as an attempt to address the immense frustration caused to employees and as a product of negotiation with the employer. Leave was chosen instead of a monetary form of compensation, as it is a tangible benefit that is both flexible and easily administered without having to further bog down the Phoenix pay system.

ACFO-ACAF, along with the Association of Justice Council (AJC), and the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) currently serve on this committee on behalf of all public service unions. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) served on this committee for two years.

There are 15 public service unions that have signed the joint agreement compensating more than 146,000 current and former employees. Including: Association of Canadian Financial Officers, Association of Justice Council, Canadian Association of Professional Employees, Canadian Federal Pilots Association, Canadian Merchants Service Guild, Canadian Military Colleges Faculty Association, Canadian Union of Public Employees 104, Federal Government Dockyard Trades and Labour Council (East), Federal Government Dockyard Trades and Labour Council (West), Federal Government Dockyard Chargehands Association, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers, Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, Unifor, Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.

No, this settlement aims at resolving a number of policy grievances and complaints filed by bargaining agents, not a collective agreement. It was signed on June 12, 2019.

In the highly unlikely event that another union secures improvements to this deal, the employer has committed to making those same improvements to the deal that we have.

We don’t know how a change in government might affect future Phoenix negotiations. It might take longer and be more difficult to negotiate a settlement.

No. This is separate and apart from bargaining. The provisions for Phoenix compensation will not appear in your collective agreement.

Further negotiations will take place later in this fiscal year if Phoenix is still affecting members. For as long as there are Phoenix issues, we will seek damages and compensation through all of the appropriate channels.